BOOK II.] History of Nature. 37 



with so base and manifold a Ministry ? And hardly can it 

 be judged, whether it be better for Mankind to believe that 

 the Gods have Regard of us, or that they have none ; con- 

 sidering that some Men have no Respect and Reverence for 

 the Gods, and others so much that their Superstition is a 

 Shame to them. These are devoted to them by foreign Cere- 

 monies .- they wear their Gods upon their Fingers in Rings, 

 yea, they worship Monsters : they forbid some Meats ; and 

 yet they devise others. They impose upon them hard 

 Charges, riot suffering them to rest and sleep in quiet. They 

 choose neither Marriages, nor Children, nor any one Thing 

 else, but by the Allowance of sacred Rites. Others are so 

 godless, that in the very Capitol they use Deceit, and for- 

 swear themselves even by the Thunder of Jupiter. And as 

 some speed well with their Irreligion, so others suffer from 

 their own holy Ceremonies. 



Between these Opinions, Men have found out a Medium 

 of Divine Power, to the End that there should be a still more 

 uncertain Conjecture regarding God. For throughout the 

 whole World, in every Place, at all Times, and in all Men's 

 Mouths, Fortune alone is called upon : she only is named ; 

 she alone is blamed and accused. None but she is thought 

 upon ; she only is praised, she only is rebuked ; yea, and 

 worshipped with railing : and even when she is taken to be 

 mutable : and of the most sort supposed also to be blind : 

 roving, inconstant, uncertain, variable, and favouring the 

 Unworthy : whatever is spent and lost, whatever is gotten : A 

 and in all Men's Accounts she makes up the Book. Even 

 the very Chance of Lots is taken for a God, by which God 

 himself is shewn to be uncertain. 



There is another Sort that reject Fortune, but attribute 

 Events to their Stars, and the ascendant of their Nativity : 

 affirming that the same shall ever happen which once hath 

 been decreed by God : so that he for ever after may remain 

 at Rest. And this Opinion now takes deep Root, insomuch 

 as both the learned and the ignorant Multitude agree to it. 



1 " Won and gotten," to balance " spent and lost." 



